No Sky in Space (serial)
No Sky in Space 'was the first story of Season 39 of ''Doctor Who. It was written and directed by Nicholas MeyerWhile Nicholas Meyer wrote the screenplay for this episode, Russell T Davies wrote the story-line with him, and they both received a '''Story by credit in the closing titles. and featured Richard E. Grant as the Doctor and Anna Hope as Sandra Armstrong. It's notable for introducing the characters of Sandra Armstrong, Fen Do'nel and Billard as well as introducing both the Bellonsion and Poplne races into the show. Synopsis “''For the interest of development, the human race have been selected to lead the project into hyper-spacial travel. I CALL FAVOURITISM! I cannot believe that the human race was selected for the project when the Bellonsions were the perfect candidates. I should have been out there on the new frontiers exploring hyper-spacial travel not the humans. It seems I will remain on a rust bucket of a space station on the edge of the galaxy. TERMINATE LOG ENTRY – Commander Sandra Armstrong, 12th November 3445.” A strange blue box appears out of nowhere in the Space Station Exotract 42’s Hospital. All the instruments read that it doesn’t exist. They don’t acknowledge it’s presence. Soon enough an expert known as ‘The Doctor’ starts to help out. Meanwhile, a secret ploy to keep the Bellonsions out of power is taking place as well as corruption at the highest levels of the Bellonsions’ worst enemy, the Poplne. The truth must be uncovered before hyper-spacial ships reach the launchpad. Plot Part 1 To be added. Part 2 To be added. Part 3 To be added. Cast * The Doctor - Richard E. Grant * Commander Sandra Armstrong - Anna Hope * Fen Do'nel - Tucker Smallwood * Sub-Commander Arkque - Jillian Bach * Lieutenant Commander Jaszal - Donnelly Rhodes * Lieutenant Pensgah - Susan Bullah * Duo Famsar - Alexander Balie * Duo Deathtrick - Alan Dale * Admiral Samuels - Barry Sonya * Father Billard - William Bleach * Western Dracon - Harold Vela * Voice of Computer - Elisabeth Sladen Crew Memorable Quotes To be added. Background Information Development * Development on the Story-line for, what would become, "No Sky in Space" came soon after Russell T Davies's appointment as Script Editor in 2001. * Davies originally planned to pen the story himself and intended it to be very different. The companion was to be a young office cleaner who encounters Autons while alone in a large building at night. The would-be companion was to have met the Doctor and his first word to her would have been ‘Run!’. * David Renwick, rejected Davies's proposal for the first story and the new companion because he didn't want to do the stock contemporary girl companion and wanted to do something different. Renwick suggested that since they had a companion from the past, in the form of Sammy, and from the present, in the form of Lou, the next companion should be from the future. Renwick asked Davies to work with Nicholas Meyer to develop the companion and the first story of the season. * Meyer was inspired by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the especially the character of Major Kira. He suggested that the new companion could riff on her. This was when it was first suggested, by Meyer, that she could be an alien. Davies later decided to change this to half-human for the opportunity to further explore the character's backstory. * It was in fact Davies who created the new companion's race, the Bellonsions. Speaking in 2012: "''I wanted to do a new race that we've never seen before. That way we can find all sorts of things about them and develop them from the ground up. The Bellonsions originated from the general idea of the Bajorans from Star Trek but they were purposely a lot more self-sustaining and independent. We decided to make the Bellonsions a member of the Galactic Federation to create a link to humanity and let us see humanity as perhaps the enemy." * Meyer and Davies both worked on developing the character for months right up to the deadline date for the first scripts needing to be commissioned. As the companion was not yet fully realised, in proposed Story-lines from other writers, Davies asked them to use Lou Madison as the companion. This led to a rumour, spread by the Sun, that Lou would return, somehow, as the companion in the upcoming season. * In mid-2001, the character outline of Sandra Armstrong was approved by David Renwick. * Due to Davies and Meyer first working on developing the companion, the Story-line for the first story had not yet been written, when in fact, all of the scripts for the story should have been completed. Therefore No Sky in Space was the fourth story of the season to be finalised and shot. * The decision to set the first episode on an old Space-Station was taken by Meyer, which further increased parallels to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as he wanted to heighten the isolation Sandra was feeling and her long for change. * Meyer decided that the Bellonsions needed a direct antagonistic race to face off against and created the Poplne. He specified that they should be an all CGI monster and should be very thin and bony. As a result of this Meyer also created the double act of Duo Famsar and Duo Deathtrick, the main Poplne throughout the show. Speaking about them in 2012, Meyer commented: "The Poplne are supposed to be in a grey area. They aren't terrible but they're not completely good either, almost like humanity. Duo Famsar and Duo Deathtrick sum that up, they can both be extremely menacing and downright evil at times, but they can also be witty and light-hearted but never in view of their enemy. They never make that mistake." * It was Davies who suggested involving the Church story-line first hinted at by his predecessor Steven Moffat. Davies and Meyer created the character of Father Billard to further develop the Church and to create conflict Sandra as Billard was heavily biased against the Bellonsions. * The decision was made by Meyer to centre the story around Sandra's struggle to involve the Bellonsions in the development of Hyper-Spacial travel which would make them a much bigger power in the Galactic Federation. Meyer commented: "This gave us a cause to rally around that we supported Sandra in and we could easily understand her motivations." * The story, intentionally, is a lot more focused on Sandra than the Doctor and it's all shown from Sandra's point of view. There is never a scene which shows the Doctor on his own, he is always with another character. Furthermore, it's almost treated like this is the pilot for an "Exotract 42" show which just happens to feature the Doctor as another character. * Fen Do'nel was created by Meyer, to be a loyal first-officer to Sandra but also have a personality and spirit of his own. Meyer, never intended for Do'nel to become a recurring character on ''Doctor Who'' and a main on ''Panopticon'' and ''Rebel Zero'', when writing No Sky in Space. * The addition of Lieutenant Commander Jaszal was a late one, suggested by Davies. He commented: "Jaszal was our sort of false-hero, if you like. While it's obvious that Sandra will be our new companion, it seems quite certain that Jaszal may join the Doctor and Sandra in the TARDIS, in perhaps a similar vein as Harry in Robot. However, of course, it's revealed that he is in fact a Poplne spy, which should make the audience think twice before trusting and liking a character." * As a result of this, it wasn't until the final draft that Sandra left with the Doctor against her will. Originally, the Doctor offered her the opportunity to see the universe, but because Jaszal set the base to self destruct, Meyer decided to have the Doctor have to kidnap Sandra to get her to safety, to save her life. Meyer commented: "It was a controversial move but a necessary one as it shows how devoted Sandra is to her people and how devoted the Doctor is to trying to save people, by any means necessary. It also created an interesting dynamic between the Doctor and Sandra in subsequent stories." Pre-Production * Casting Director, Andy Pryor, saw over 300 women for the role of Sandra Armstrong. * Eventually, in mid-2001, Anna Hope was cast and formally contracted for the role of Sandra. She was officially contracted for one season with the option of a second. * The sets for Exotract 42, were some of the biggest and most expensive sets ever created for a single story of Doctor Who and therefore went hugely over budget. Bill Shapter, jiggled costs around to compensate for this, partly resulting in a such low budget for the final story of the season, as he knew that the first story had to set a scale for the series and Exotract 42 was such a important location that had to be just right. Production To be added. Post-Production * The Poplne CGI models were created and animated by visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. Reaction To be added. Story Notes * This is the first story to feature Commander Sandra Armstrong as well as the first to feature the Bellonsions and Poplne. * This also marks the first story since The Web Of Time not to feature Sammy Thompson. * This is the third story to be directed by Nicholas Meyer. Continuity * The Doctor would next encounter the Bellonsions in his Eleventh incarnation, during his time as Lord President, where they along with the Poplne and many other races, would form the Gallifreyan Union. And then again during his Twelfth incarnation where they were on the verge of extinction. * A clip from No Sky in Space featured during the Eleventh Doctor's title sequence. Home Video Releases Footnotes Category:Stories Category:Tenth Doctor stories Category:Companion Introduction Stories Category:Poplne Stories Category:Chapter Two Part III Stories